A new calibration method for quantitative lateral force measurement in atomic force microscope (AFM) is presented to measure lateral force accurately in nanotribology. The effect of contact stiffness on the conversion factor between lateral force and ...
A new calibration method for quantitative lateral force measurement in atomic force microscope (AFM) is presented to measure lateral force accurately in nanotribology. The effect of contact stiffness on the conversion factor between lateral force and lateral signal is analyzed, and a new conversion factor involving a contact factor in the calibration procedure is proposed. The contact factor is affected by tip and cantilever stiffness and contact stiffness. Conventional conversion factor is determined experimentally and modified to involve the contact factor. The calibration results show that the dependency of the conventional conversion factor on the normal load and sample materials is eliminated by using the proposed method.